


Winter's Last Breath

by NervousAliceCurious



Category: Escape the Night (Web Series), 零 濡鴉ノ巫女 | Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water
Genre: Attempted Suicide, F/F, F/M, Friendly banter, Gen, Ghost Swarm, Hiking, Indiana Jones-ing, Maiden Of Black Water, Mount Hikami (Fatal Frame), Suicide, guava juice
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-18
Updated: 2019-06-18
Packaged: 2020-05-14 08:26:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,190
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19269454
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NervousAliceCurious/pseuds/NervousAliceCurious
Summary: JC, Roi, Teala, and Colleen head into the mountains for a simple hiking trip...and find themselves epically scrambling to track down their missing Daredevil, and the one whom he set out to save.





	Winter's Last Breath

**Author's Note:**

> WARNING!!
> 
> This will touch on the subject of suicide to the point where somebody actually tries to get away with it.
> 
>  
> 
> Fatal Frame 5 in general carries it as its main theme, and I don't want to severely scar anybody!!!!
> 
> Start and end will be marked with a bolded line.

“Now this-“

 

JC stopped to smell the fresh Summer air, and took a deep, crisp breath.

 

 

“This is what I was talking about”.

 

 

“The happy zest of Summer?”

 

 

Roi flashed him an enthusiastic grin as he skittered right up to the edge of the cliff, looking down it in awe.

 

 

“Hey-!

 

There are pink flowers down there”.

 

 

Teala hurried to clasp her arms around his middle before he fell over!

 

 

“I’d rather have _you_ than pink flowers!

 

Get back up here!!”

 

 

The fourth and final member of their little party, Colleen, raised an eyebrow.

 

 

“Do you really mean that, girl?”

 

 

…Oh NOW she realized how that sounded.

 

 

“Don’t go getting ideas”.

 

 

“I won’t…”

 

 

If emojis were people, the Disco Dancer would have been the spitting image of a suspiciously innocent winky face.

 

 

The Hippie good-naturedly shook his head.

 

 

‘What am I gonna do with you guys?’

 

 

-

 

 

Halfway to the top, Roi started squirming.

 

 

“Uh-“

 

 

Practically tap-dancing, actually…

 

 

“Hey…sooo…”

 

 

“ _Please_ don’t say you have to take a leak!”

 

 

Teala squeezed her eyes shut, and shuddered.

 

 

“…But you just said it”.

 

 

Colleen rolled her eyes.

 

 

“I TOLD you not to drink all those fizzy sodas-“

 

“They were guava-flavored! My viewers wanted to see it!”

 

 

“It’s fine”.

 

 

JC’s calm voice interrupted their exchange.

 

 

“You can go on ahead if you want…just don’t take forever”.

 

“-And don’t find a weird snake and get lost again!” Teala firmly added.

 

 

“I’ll try not to!” the Daredevil said with a wink.

 

 

Colleen raised the other eyebrow.

 

 

‘Oh yeah, there’s _no_ way I’m going to get any ideas from this at all…’

 

 

-

 

 

‘Thank goodness there are a lot of trees here!’

 

 

If not, he would’ve been stuck seriously hoping that no other soda-saturated hikers came to this part of the woods anytime soon.

 

 

‘That would be reeeally embarrassing’.

 

 

 

…Finishing up his business, Roi fumbled through his pockets for the hand-sanitizer Teala had let him borrow when he’d unceremoniously dropped his down a rain-grate.

 

 

‘Here we are!!’

 

 

He popped the cap, and was nearly overwhelmed by the scent of very potent strawberries.

 

 

‘I now know what to ask Ro to make her for her birthday’.

 

 

Squeezing out a pea-sized drop, he made sure to vigorously scrub the sweet-smelling stuff all over his hands!

 

 

‘Germs…please find somewhere else to live’.

 

 

No getting sick on _this_ vacation!

 

Hopefully…

 

 

A rustling from the underbrush.

 

 

“Hyeek!”

 

 

-Before he knew it, it was out of his mouth.

 

 

The most high-pitched scream ever.

 

 

 

‘Whoops…’

 

 

 

He jumped even higher when the pale specter stumbled out of the bush!

 

 

 

“Holy Cheesecake on a cracker!!!”

 

 

 

-Oh wait, never mind, it was just a girl.

 

 

 

A…

 

 

A girl with dazed-looking eyes…?

 

 

 

“Hey…you okay?”

 

 

She stared at him blankly for several seconds before wandering off among a gap in the redwoods…

 

 

‘…’

 

 

He went after her.

 

 

-

 

 

“Oh my God, what is taking him so long!?”

 

Teala could barely keep her foot from tapping as is, and Colleen’s toes were full-on piston machines!

 

 

“…He probably found that snake from the last time we went hiking”.

 

 

JC thoughtfully checked his watch.

 

 

“It’s only been about ten minutes besides”.

 

 

“It doesn’t take ten minutes to go to the loo!”

 

 

Fiddling restlessly with the beaded necklace she wore, the Disco Dancer looked out at the path their self-proclaimed guava-guzzler had disappeared down.

 

 

Teala shrugged.

 

 

“I guess he coulda had to do more-“

 

 

The soft _thump, thump, thump_ of footsteps.

 

**Running** footsteps.

 

 

 

The Hippie shivered as he felt someone unseen brush by him.

 

Kicking up a rather impressive breeze in their wake-

 

 

“Wh-what was that!?”

 

Teala was spooked.

 

 

“I dunno”.

 

Colleen’s flippant tone was a tight contrast to the rapidly-darting motions of her eyes.

 

 

“The wind?”

 

“The wind doesn’t usually sound like a running ghost!”

 

“Oh come on!”

 

 

She gave the girl a sharp look.

 

 

“Don’t tell me you actually believe in hokey stuff like that…”

 

“How can you not!?” She snapped back.

 

 

“Very easily”.

 

 

-A loud scream.

 

It sounded like.

 

 

_“Roi!!”_

 

Teala’s heart nearly stopped in her chest!

 

 

“-Yeah we should go check that out”.

 

 

JC made for the upcoming fork in the road, the Super Spy on his heels, and a now-very-alarmed Colleen trailing in tow.

 

 

-

 

 

Close your eyes think back to the day…

 

In Spring we would play…

 

Cherry trees all abloom in their full splendour...

 

…I know I'll remember you…

 

 

 

He could hear her, singing…

 

 

 

 

Play with me forever…

 

I know I'll remember you…

 

 

Forever and ever…

 

 

…I know I'll remember you…

 

 

 

Forever and evermore

 

 

 

The Daredevil raced out of the foliage cover as fast as he could!

 

-There she was, white dress fluttering in the wind, poised just across the shores of a small stream.

 

 

 

**Holding a wicked-curved knife to her neck**

 

 

 

“NO!!”

 

 

 

“Haruka…?”

 

 

She turned to look at him-

 

Right when he pounced.

 

 

His fingers curled around her wrist, and yanked the blade away with enough strength-

 

 

His heart stopped.

 

 

 

A vivd line of red had formed along her throat.

 

 

“Nononono-!!”

 

 

**The knife sunk deep within his chest.**

 

 

…

 

 

He swallowed a scream as everything around him changed.

 

 

The bloody, self-satisfied leer of a girl in a drenched, white kimono.

 

Letting go of her victim’s faintly twitching arm, she melted into the mist.

 

 

Black water flowed beneath their feet, crawling steadily up their legs as her legs buckled, and he caught her against his wobbling, gasping frame.

 

Overhanging branches stretched to entrap them, hanging nooses hanging spirits reaching out in vain as even more rose sluggishly from their watery grave.

 

 

‘Ghosts are…real…!!!?”

 

 

Somehow, that was the thought that soared through his brain only seconds before a cold chill pervaded his bones.

 

 

He gasped in shock…and then went pale as blood spatter colored the waves.

 

 

‘Holy s* I’m gonna die’.

 

 

His first instinct was to at least ensure that one of them would survive the encounter.

 

 

Despite the d*ning band he’d seen around her throat-

 

 

 

‘I have to take that chance!’

 

 

 

SHOVE

 

 

-

 

 

“Uh, can somebody please tell me what’s going on here?”

 

Teala glanced nervously at the darkening sky.

 

 

“What’s with all this!?”

 

 

“I don’t know!” Colleen yelled.

 

 

“-No, I don’t know either”, JC quickly replied.

 

 

The strange wind from earlier had picked up considerably, blowing slimy dirt and plants into their faces as they tried their hardest to stay on the trail-!!

 

 

Colleen thought she saw a glimpse of a woman in-between the flickering tree-line.

 

 

“Who’s that?”

 

“Who’s what?”

 

“That lady-“

 

“What lady-“

 

 

JC stopped short, and they both ran into him.

 

 

“Ow-“ Teala rubbed her sore forehead.

 

Colleen muttered a variety of lovely words her baby would never, ever hear.

 

 

“Hey there”.

 

 

They peeked over his shoulders in varying degrees of annoyance.

 

 

A teenager in orange, hair soaked to the roots was perched ominously at the edge of a rapidly-rushing river.

 

 

“…You wanna step away for a sec?”

 

 

She didn’t act as if she’d heard him at all.

 

Just kept staring at something clutched within her fingers.

 

 

“Uh, hellooo~” Colleen sing-songed.

 

“Honey?”

 

 

What are you doing?

 

 

“-Huh?”

 

 

Her head snapped up.

 

 

“Hi”.

 

 

JC smiled at her warmly.

 

 

“We’re looking for a friend of ours…an excitable guy wearing a red, Hawaiian shirt?”

 

 

He gently took her elbow, and carefully steered her away from the shores of Certain Death.

 

 

“Did you see him come this way?”

 

 

‘Pretty sure the answer’s ‘no’…’

 

 

…But he asked anyway.

 

 

“No…no, I…where’s-?”

 

 

Whatever she’d been holding was almost dropped into the underbrush!

 

 

“Himino-san… _Himino-san!!”_

 

 

In a blur, she hot-footed it into the woods.

 

 

“Wh-HEY!?”

 

Colleen was all set to go after her!!

 

 

“Who’s ‘Himino-san’?”

 

Teala was confused.

 

 

“I don’t know…”

 

 

Maybe someone in trouble?

 

 

“Oh”.

 

“‘Oh’ what?”

 

 

“I think I figured out why he didn’t come back”.

 

 

-

 

 

Her feet slipped in the gush of black mud, and she almost fell right back in to the poisonous pit.

 

The shape in the mist she’d seen…

 

 

It had been a lie.

 

 

Hope crushed her lungs with disappointment, but all the same.

 

She was relieved.

 

 

That didn’t necessarily mean that her dearest friend in the world was dead and gone.

 

Not yet.

 

 

Turning, she was witness to a disturbing sight:

 

A man she’d never met struggling under the weight of what seemed to be a thousand ghostly arms, weird moans echoing through the moonlit clearing and making her skin crawl.

 

 

“H…HEY!”

 

 

-He heard her.

 

He mouthed ‘go’.

 

 

“I’m the one who got away, leave him alone!!”

 

 

The mass quieted.

 

 

The ghosts slunk back into their shadows…

 

 

He sank to his knees, one hand pressed firmly to the cascade of blood from the wound.

 

 

She drew in a shuddering breath.

 

 

From the peaceful dark, a woman stepped forth.

 

 

 

‘You, who have yearned to die must join us in death’.

 

 

-

 

 

“Where’d she go!?”

 

Colleen was this close to tearing her hair out-

 

 

“HEY!”

 

 

“-Over here!” Teala shouted.

 

 

She slid onto a side-path lit by a row of antique lanterns, and skidded into the gloom.

 

 

“Don’t go too far-“ JC warned.

 

 

“Don’t get lost!!”

 

 

But she was sure she pretty much had it covered.

 

 

She could hear more yelling, and the splatter of s* hitting the fan.

 

 

Then, it was HIS voice, ragged, but still full of cheer-

 

 

“ROI!!!”

 

“TEALA!!?”

 

 

She crashed through a skinny patch of briars, and was hit with a wave of ‘oh-my-god-thank-the-lord-you’re-still-alive’.

 

 

That witch creeping along the bay could keep her hands OFF!

 

 

-

 

 

Whoever it was that came charging out of the forest ripped the guy out of the water as if she were Superwoman.

 

“I’m really sorry I ran off-“

 

“It’s fine.

 

Just as long as you weren’t dead somewhere, I wasn’t gonna kick your a*”.

 

 

Then she noticed.

 

 

“-You scared me!”

 

“…?”

 

 

“I have no idea who that is, but she was about to die”.

 

“WHAT”.

 

 

“…It’s…true…”

 

 

She could still feel the knife in her hand…the smooth, comfortable motion of it rocking towards her neck…

 

Someone had been there.

 

 

Someone had wanted her to die.

 

 

And she **would** have.

 

 

If that man hadn’t intervened when he did…

 

She never would’ve seen Haruka again.

 

 

“Hey”.

 

 

Despite bleeding profusely, he made the effort to clap her gently on the shoulder.

 

 

“When we get out of here, you want some guava juice?

 

I’ve got at least six carton-fulls left in the backseat…”

 

“Oh no”.

 

His friend groaned.

 

“Didn’t you learn your lesson the last time?”

 

 

Two more people burrowed through the cover of trees.

 

 

“JC! Colleen!”

 

“Good to see you, Roi-“

 

“Oh my God!!”

 

The woman in the olive sparkles tackled Roi into a worried-frantic hug.

 

“Who did this!? I am going to KILL THEM!!!”

 

“No-NO don’t kill her!!”

 

“Her?”

 

“She didn’t know, I saw her-“

 

“THAT her!?”

 

 

Pointing…

 

 

“Uh. Yeah…”

 

 

Colleen’s eyes pierced hers.

 

 

“And who are you?”

 

 

“Himino…Fuyuhi…”

 

 

“I knew it…”, JC whispered.

 

“Somebody’s looking for you!” Teala said in awe.

 

“Like, we literally just met her ten minutes ago”.

 

“Her…”

 

 

Yuri.

 

 

“Where…where is she?”

 

“We don’t know”, Colleen replied.

 

“Erm, miss ah…Himino?”

 

 

She cleared her throat.

 

 

“Why did you stab Roi again?”

 

 

“-I got the knife away before she could stab **herself** with it”.

 

 

-She abruptly shut up.

 

 

“WHAT!?” Teala squawked.

 

 

“And then all these ghosts just came out of nowhere and tried to eat us alive”.

 

 

His turn to point.

 

“Including that one like, a foot from the rest of us”.

 

 

…When it sank in.

 

 

Fuyuhi spun to meet a pair of ink-shrouded eyes.

 

 

 

 

‘Become one with the black water’.

 

 

-

 

 

“In your dreams, b*!”

 

 

Colleen wrapped her arms around the new kid’s shoulders, and wrenched her behind them.

 

 

“She stays with us”.

 

 

“Yeah!”

 

 

Roi hopped in front.

 

 

“Oh no you don’t-“

 

Teala pulled him out of the line of fire just as a malefic wave of purple light blitzed through the air!

 

 

JC grimaced as a wet and heavy weight pressed into his chest.

 

Precisely within the space currently occupied by his heart.

 

 

“Guys…we should get out of here”.

 

“We can’t take her?”

 

 

Roi’s face had grown ashen to the point where his veins were plainly visible beneath the flesh.

 

 

“No”.

 

“-You would die!” Colleen protested.

 

“That, and…we can’t beat her without something pretty supernatural…which we don’t have”.

 

 

Teala blanched as the maiden glided softly closer…

 

Or was that because her soul was being sucked out her pores?

 

 

“…We should go. We should _really_ go-“

 

 

‘No one escapes the mountain’.

 

 

“B* no one asked you!!” Colleen yelped.

 

 

As one, they all booked it to the opening within the trees.

 

 

-

 

 

“Owowowow-

 

I’m a brave boy, I can take the pain-!!”

 

 

The Disco Dancer sighed.

 

 

“Just hang on…it’ll only be for a little longer”.

 

 

They were on the road now, en route to the hospital.

 

 

Colleen and Roi were crunched in the backseat area winding up his injury with first-aid surgical tape.

 

 

Teala was watching anxiously from the trunk as he winced, stiff as a board upon the seats.

 

 

And Fuyuhi was spacing tiredly out the window while JC drove as fast as possible within the speed limit.

 

 

 

H* only knew if they would make it in time…

 

 

 

A ghostly figure at the side of the road stared lifelessly at their retreating vehicle.

 

Then smashed unceremoniously over their windshield.

**Author's Note:**

> This...will probably also get a sequel.
> 
> For obvious reasons.
> 
>  
> 
> Anyways, thank you for reading, and have a wonderful day and SUMMER!!! (:


End file.
